Wise Suggestions On Writing A Dissertation Abstract In An Hour

It may sound impossible be it can be done - you can write the abstract for your dissertation in one hour. It will be tight but you can do it.

• What is an abstract? Just remind yourself the reason why you need an abstract. It is a precis or summary of the how, why, what, when and where of your paper. You may have found yourself trying to write the Abstract at the same time as write your paper, advice is to always leave it till until last!. 2 minutes. Look at one or two examples to refresh your memory. 2 minutes.


• Refresh your memory. Make sure that you are familiar with the number of words that you need. The usual number is between 200 – 300. Be aware that you need to be very economical with you words and that you will need to replace several words with one word. You should use words that are specific to your field of study. 5 minutes.


• Chapters. By now you have spent a lot of your time writing the Introduction, Literature Review, Method, Results and Discussion. You have also developed your hypothesis so that it is represents exactly what you were trying to prove through your work. At this point do not read through your work again. 1 minute.


• Make Brief Notes. Actually you need to write a sentence about each of the following:
• How did you prove or disprove your hypothesis.


• Why did you feel that the work in this area was important?


• What did you think would be discovered through your work?


• What actually happened?


• Were your results significant (briefly state the results).


• What conclusions did you draw for your research?


• How could you results apply to similar situation, 15 minutes.

The questions are broad and may not actually apply to your research.

• Start pruning. You now have more information than you actually need. Check to see if you have repeated yourself if so eliminate those words. Start moving around the rest of the information you have gathered so that it is in a logical order. 7minutes.


• At this point you may have double the amount of words. Check to see if you can replace any clumsy phrases with specific words. That have a more concise meaning. This should reduce you wordage considerably. 10 minutes.


• At this point you may feel much pressured so it may be an idea to just take a very small break (5 minutes). By doing this you will then be able to go back to the task refreshed. Read the abstract again, does it still flow well, does it represent what your work achieved. Remember that this part of your work is the 'advertisement'!


• Now comes the crunch time when you really have to fit all of the information in the word limit, you have 13 minutes to read through and make alterations to your work. You may find that as you have been working at such a fast and directed pace that you complete easily within the time allotted.